bocraw

Is this Ken Nance from the old crankenstein.net ?!!??? Fishing has been good in Alabama. Unfortunately I hit a rock last week and bent prop shaft and tore up prop. I am about to hook up boat and take to couple of dealers to get estimates. I hope the price is lower than what they quoted on the phone! Otherwise my boat will be parked for a while....

Okay...what is the trick to getting more than one picture in a post?

What a great thread! There are some excellent catches here. Here are a couple of nice ones I caught this year. Both caught on Lay Lake here in Alabama. The LM weighed 7-13. The spot weighed 4-04.

My club penalizes 8 oz for dead fish. I find the above post very interesting because I have learned that many clubs have even stricter penalties than we do. We do not have a rule about culling dead fish.

It is recruiting time of year for bass clubs--Ours has members in both Georgia and Alabama. We are looking to grow the membership in Alabama by 3 members this year. We will be holding a meeting in the Birmingham area in the coming weeks for those of you interested who would like to meet the members of our club. Our 2009 schedule is out. You can check it out a www.tmtanglers.com . Also, 2009 will be the first full season for our CPR tournaments (catch, photo, and release). They are a lot of fun. Let me know if you are interested in more info.

My club does not do paper tournament per se. But we do "Catch, Photo, Release" (CPR) Contest that last an entire season. The person with the biggest fish during the season receives AOY bonus points and bragging rights. We got the idea from bassresouce.com's state vs state tournament actually...

I am in a holding pattern on this since there is a slight chance Airport Marine might organize something along these lines next year. But just in case that falls through and I do something small on my own, I have to ask: WHAT WOULD BE A COOL NAME FOR AN ANNUAL CLUB VS CLUB TOURNAMENT?

Garnet is dead on. First of all, the regional tournaments were unnecessary. Just the vacation time involved with that excluded many anglers. Second, the original idea BASS had was to exclude paper clubs by allowing one six man team per 12 club members. And your club had to fish at least six genuine events per year to submit a team. i.e. you had to be a real club with real members with a real schedule. Those rules were almost immediately thrown by the wayside opening the door for paper clubs. So the end result was that your team got to pay $600 for the privilege of fishing against guides and pros who put together a paper club. If you win you get the privilege of paying even more money and burning vacation time to fish against even more pros at the regional level. Had they kept the entry fee reasonable, and limited entries to genuine clubs, the participation would have been greater from clubs like mine. Also, the rules should have allowed you to fish with your teammates from the get-go. That rule change would have increased interest had they kept the BCWC around longer. Also, communication surrounding the BCWC was not good and could have been much better from BASS and from the State Chapters. But in defense of State Chapters, those volunteers were charged with rebuilding the state chapters after the split. So those unpaid volunteers kind-of had their hands full after the split and adding a new project like this at that time was probably too ambitious. But the bottom line, is that Don Corkran is right, that the BCWC did not resonate well with the chapters. He can push the blame on the members but the truth is had it been organized and promoted correctly, it would have been successful. So the fault is on BASS's shoulders--not that they give a rip about losing the BCWC.

I wish! I'm just a nerd who likes the sport.

They are four day tournaments. The final ranking for that tournament is based on your total weight over the four day period.

With the BCWC canceled, my club is kicking around ideas to fill that void. I personally like the idea of a team vs. team format. One of the ideas we are kicking around is to find a club in our part of the country that is willing to fish against us once a year. I would like to make it an annual tradition and friendly rivalry. But I don't want to do a ton of work so I want to keep it small. Also, it would have to be a club in our part of the country due to gas prices. Anyway, if your club is located in AL, GA, MS, TN, or N FL and you think you might be interested let me know. Again, I am just kicking around ideas at this point.

Because it "did not resonate as well as we would have liked" Here is the press release: BASS announced today the organization will discontinue the operation of the BASS Club World Championship, in order to increase focus on the BASS Federation Nation Divisionals, the BASS Federation Nation Championship and the Bassmaster Opens. As previously announced, Wagoner, Okla., and Fort Gibson Lake will host the 2008 BASS Club World Championship, set for Oct. 9-11. The event will feature 38 six-angler teams that qualified for the championship event through their performance at six regional events. "We introduced the team format to provide more competition outlets for our Federation Nation members," said Don Corkran, director of the BASS Federation Nation. "Ultimately, it didn't resonate as well as we would have liked. We feel that this move will allow us to put more focus on grassroots events with direct qualifying avenues into the Bassmaster Classic."

I could type a War and Peace length volume venting my opinions about BASS right now---but I will spare you all. Suffice it to say that I am extremely disappointed that they have canceled these tournaments. Once again I think BASS had a great concept and missed the mark on execution. I hope some other organization picks up the ball and creates a tournament series where clubs send their Top 6 anglers to compete in a team format. It should be kept simple where each state has a tournament and the winners of each state go to a national tournament. Naturally, I would love to see this happen but do not want to do any of the work to make it happen...just being honest.

Sharkbite, here is a link to the elite series Angler of the Year (AOY) points system: http://assets.espn.go.com/winnercomm/outdoors/bassmaster/pdf/b_AOY_Points_07_01_08.pdf BASS tournaments last four days. The first two days have a little over 100 boats. On the third day they cut the field to 50 boats depending on how they are doing in that tournament. On the last day they cut the field to the top 12 boats. The last day is the "TV Day" and these 12 boats are highlighted on TV. Usually the anglers who have a legitimate chance to win get most of the TV time. Ike hasn't been on TV as much the last couple of years because he hasn't made the cut on the last day as much. Gerald Swindle, Marty Stone, Greg Hackney and others are former AOY contenders who have seen their TV time drop. TV time is mostly based on how they perform in tournaments and that is how it should be.

How does your club or organization penalize anglers for having too many fish? It seems like I remember Paul Elias doing this at an Elite Series tournament recently and was penalized his largest fish...

When they first announced the BCWC, I seem to remember rules that prevented "paper clubs" from dominating the trail. I seem to remember a rule that the club had to hold at least six regular season events. Looking at the members of the RIVER REGION BASS FRATERNITY, I wonder if they held six regular season events. I tried to look up the exact guidelines on the bassmaster.com/federation website and can no longer find the rules. I hate to be a poo-pooer, but I like the idea of REAL bass clubs competing in this fashion.

I am president of a small club and this issue has come up for us as well. I have avoided implementing the 50 yard rule because it is so hard to enforce. It will boil down to one angler's word against another's and if you are TD or Pres then you are put in the crappy position of being in the middle. Our club is extremely picky about who we let in. Most of our members have enough common sense to be courteous to other fisherman. Having said that, we do have one problem child and it is only a matter of time before we have to implement such a rule. The language will say something along the lines of fishing within 100 ft of a competitor's boat that is anchored without permission is prohibited. Violators will be penalized their days weight. The TM rule would be too hard to enforce, as would a rule that addresses fishing around other anglers in different tournaments.

Today is the Southern Divisional BCWC on Lake Wheeler. I think the concept of Clubs vs Clubs in team tournaments is so ultra-cool...I am sick that I am not fishing in it myself. I could not get six people enthusiastic enough to fish in the state tournament last fall and now I am regretting it. Have any of you guys fished in a BCWC tournament? Is it really as much fun as I am hoping it is?

I really enjoyed that show when ESPN did it. Good points were made by the panelist in the discussion that you guys have repeated--one of which being, what does greatest angler mean? That is a question we could philosophize on for many moons and it is quite possible that the top ten would not even include a tournament bass fisherman. But as for the question of who is the greatest bass tournament angler of all time? Here is my opinion: #1 Roland Martin, #2 Rick Clunn, #3 KVD. Roland Martin was so good in his prime that they had to continually change the rules so that other guys could compete. He was flat out studly and was an innovator in the sport. Rick Clunn is a close second, but his influence is not shown in the bass fishing culture that exist today like Roland's does. KVD is without question the most dominate angler on tour today and probably will be the greatest angler if he doesn't hit a slump. If he is able to adapt his fishing style as his body ages and still wins tournaments, then in my book that is the day he will replace Roland as the greatest angler. But he still has a decade or two to go before he even become eligible to pass Clunn and Martin on the Greatest Angler List. As Tim Tucker said on the ESPN show, it is hard to compare eras in sports. But wouldn't it be cool to see all these guys in their prime going head to head? I think were they competing in the modern no-info era, then the ranks would be KVD, CLUNN, MARTIN. But if they were competing under the old rules, Martin was king and it would be MARTIN, KVD, CLUNN. My two cents...fun subject to think about.

Do you guys think they will catch them on Pencil Poppers again? That was pretty wild the year they timed the herring spawn right and the Pencil Poppers outfished the state-of-the-art $20 lures.

I by no means remotely belong in Triton Mike's league as far as fishing in general, much less catching humongo magnum spots. But I will give you my two cents none-the-less. Without knowing much about the fisheries, I agree that 4-4 sounds obtainable. One would think at least one 4-5 is swimming around a body of water in your state somewhere. Here are three general strategies to use: 1. GO STRIPE FISHING. Magnum Spots are caught all the time by stripe fisherman. Large Bucktail jigs, Long As, Redfins...all will catch mag spots. And as much as I hate to say it...if you really want to break the state record...get yourself a cast net and fish with gizard shad. 2. JIG FISH CURRENT. Do these lakes have dams like the Coosa River impoundments? Or are they like Lanier / Altoona in that they do not have dams to fish up stream. If you have a tailrace I would buy some jigs and put them in current a la Jay Yelas 2003 / 2004. My personal best was a 5-13 spot caught doing this. 3. FINESSE EM. Can you cay Charlie Brewer? I have had my arse kicked many a time by guys fishing with 6 lb test who bring in 5 lb spots. The shakey head is all that you hear talked about now, but the old schoolers still stick with the original finesse technique. I caught a 4-05 two weeks ago using htis method. But generally I do not have the patience to do this. But the basic idea here is if you catch 1000 spots one of them is bound to be large. There is my two cents. Good luck with your quest and please keep us updated. As you learn more about the lakes and can give us names, are they highland or lowland, forage, etc... then we will be able to offer more helpful suggestions. But this should get you started. Basically you need to step outside the box and go BIG or go SMALL, but either way you are doing something different. Tight Lines.

You guys may want to check my club out. Do a Google search for "TMTanglers" (this message board won't let me post a direct link). I feel we have a really good group. We have not fished with each other as much as I'd like this year though, mostly due to scheduling issues. It is hard to plan in advance. I think I am about to schedule a wildcat though. Anyway...check our group out. It is a good group of professionals to network with if you are looking for a boater or non boater to share gas expense with. We are all about sharing information and learning to be better fisherman. Tight Lines.

Hey CG...my club is called TMTanglers. We have members from Alabama and Georgia and don't have a "home lake" like many clubs do. The way our scheduling works makes it practical to have members from all over. We currently have members from Alabama and Georgia. We are a BASS Federation Nation club. We are a great club for anglers who want to learn how to catch more fish. We share information freely (with fellow members). Do a google search for TMTanglers and our site should come up. Tight Lines... PS: If you are interested let me know ad we can talk about you fishing as a guest.

In my club we are all Curado D fans. Some members were severely disappointed that Shimano revised its mainstream and affordable reel with the newer, heavier, and more expensive versions. However, the members who have tried the new reels are saying they love them. And they are saying that they are the most backlash resistant reel they have ever used. You can also get them for less than $150 with the $50 rebate they are offering. As for the rods...I use G. Loomis. But I know St. Croix to be a very good rod. Durability is important to me and I think St. Croix are tougher than Allstars. Just my two cents... One thing though...St. Croix rods are pretty stiff. As a rule of thumb you want to buy one action lower than you would with Allstar. e.g. If you use a med-heavy action Allstar then you would want a medium action St. Croix to achieve similar action. Good luck.